Human trafficking is not just something that happens in third-world countries, said Yvonne Williams of Lecanto.

“Familial trafficking is huge in the U.S.,” she said. “It usually starts with abuse by the father who then passes the child, or pornographic photos of the child, to others for money.” Williams and her husband, Marion, co-pastor the new Ascension Hill church in Inglis, Fla., and have been on an anti-human trafficking crusade for 14 years.

Because the sex trade is an underground industry, it is difficult if not impossible to calculate the number of victims and illegal revenue generated from the trafficking of children and adults in the U.S. or globally.

Even so, according to a 2014 report issued by the International Labour Organization (ILO), at least 21 million men, women and children worldwide are trapped in the industry of modern-day slavery. That industry has been estimated by ILO to generate around $150 billion-a-year in illegal profits for traffickers.

More than half the victims of human trafficking are women and girls who are used primarily in commercial sexual exploitation and for domestic work, the report states, while men and boys are primarily used in agriculture, construction, and mining.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports human trafficking is the largest and fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world today — right up there with drug- and arms-dealing. The Florida Department of Children and Families (FDCF) reported the number of human trafficking reports made to its Florida Abuse Hotline has been on the rise since 2010. In FFY 2015-16, the hotline received 1,892 human trafficking reports — up 54 percent over the previous year. Additionally, the National Human Trafficking Hotline reports that, in 2016, it received 550 reports of possible human trafficking in Florida. Of these, 401 involved sex trafficking and 59 of those involved hotel-based operations.

In Florida, Williams said, most human trafficking occurs in large cities such as Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Even so, she said it’s tentacles are reaching more and more into less populated areas.
Lindsay Blair, public information officer (PIO) and official spokesperson for the Citrus County Sheriff’s Department, said, so far, to her knowledge, “There has never been a human trafficking problem in Citrus County.”

The gateway to human trafficking

The same cannot be said concerning pornography. If there is a so-called gateway “drug” that opens the mind to cross the proverbial Rubicon into the rabbit hole of human trafficking, Williams said it’s pornography, aided by its widespread availability via the Internet. Indulging in porn creates the appetite for sex, while the ability to buy sex, courtesy of human traffickers, satisfies that appetite, she said.

Williams said, “Mass media through corporate America is fueling this thing. Like pornographers, the organizers of sex trafficking have created a business model that targets the male population. After all, who is it that pays to rape women – as well as men, and children averaging 12 to 13 years of age?

“We are dealing with an epidemic of modern day slavery due to a hyper-sexualized and violent culture,” Williams said. With the prevalence of cell phones and computers, pornography is accessible nowadays to anyone anywhere 24-7 via the internet.

According to a study by the University of New Hampshire and published in 2007 in Pediatrics, 42 percent of Internet users ages 10 to 17 said they had viewed porn online during the previous 12 months. However, 66 percent of those who did so said they weren’t looking for it but saw it accidentally.

“The FBI’s statistics show that pornography is found at 80 percent of the scenes of violent sex crimes, or in the homes of the perpetrators,” Williams said. “Only child pornography is prosecutable in America,” she said. Unless bodily fluids are exchanged, she added, “all adult porn is legal, with little to no room for policing or prosecuting criminal or trafficking-related issues.”

Williams said, “Across the world, the countries where porn is illegal have the lowest rates of sex crimes.” So why hasn’t pornography been outlawed in America?

It all boils down to supply and demand, Williams said. There are so many Americans who indulge in pornography, creating a huge demand, and meeting this demand is so highly profitable that many opportunists are more than happy to meet it — abundantly.

Williams said pornography and human trafficking have reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. and the world for one basic reason: “Many people have accepted certain behavior as normal and can no longer see who we are – dead people walking in bodies, with little concern for our human brothers and sisters.”

Williams noted the porn industry has its own lobby group called The Free Speech Coalition. Its mission statement is posted on its website, at https://www.freespeechcoalition.com/, states:
“As the national trade association to the adult entertainment and pleasure products industry, our mission is to lead, protect, and support the growth and well-being of businesses and workers in the adult industry, as well as the communities to which they belong.”

In 2013, Williams said she went to Washington, D.C., and met with five legislative aids to discuss an attempt at making pornography illegal based on the overwhelming proof that it detrimentally impacts so many lives.

“Of the five, four were completely silent, asked no questions and only said, ‘Thank you for coming and sharing your concerns,’” Williams said. “The fifth one was completely engaged and outraged at what we shared. She promised to convey the information to her legislator.”

Williams said pornography and human trafficking have reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. and the world for one basic reason: “Many people have accepted certain behavior as normal and can no longer see who we are – dead people walking in bodies, with little concern for our human brothers and sisters.”

Cynthia Oswald, PIO for Citrus County, said the county commission has been proclaiming January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month for the past several years in support of the national effort to increase public awareness and educate citizens on how to identify the red flags of potential human trafficking operations.

On Sept. 25, 2012, former President Barack Obama said of human trafficking: “It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name — modern slavery.”

As pastors, the Williamses concern goes beyond people’s physical and mental well-being to that of the soul – of both victims and perpetrators, from the souls of individuals to the collective souls of individual nations, and ultimately to the soul of humanity as a whole.

“After working in this darkness for 14 years, our hearts kept coming back to one thing: We have to work to change hearts if we are ever going to make a difference in this issue and all of the other ones the nation is facing,” Williams said.

“I’m all about prevention,” she said. “If we just educate and do not tell people how to prevent human trafficking, that education is no good. The cost of restoration is far more expensive — in dollars and human talent — than the cost of prevention.”

Sharon Anderson uses her gift of writing as a freelance writer. I would like to thank her for her concern about this issue and for doing such a great job in researching for this article!

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